1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data management method and a data management apparatus for managing data such as image data, audio data, and text-file data. The present invention also relates to a computer-readable recording medium storing a program to cause a computer to execute the data management method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been known digital photograph service systems for carrying out various kinds of digital photograph services such as storing photographs obtained by users in image servers by digitization of the photographs, recording the photographs in CD-Rs, printing images obtained by users with digital cameras, and receiving orders for additional prints. As one form of such digital photograph service systems, network photograph service systems have also been proposed. In a network photograph service system, print orders or the like are received via a network such as the Internet.
In such a network photograph service system, a user installs viewer software in his/her personal computer which acts as a user terminal for reproducing image data recorded in a CD-R or obtained with a digital camera. In order to place a print order for example, the user generates order information describing the content of the print order by using an ordering function built in to the viewer software, and transfers the order information and image data representing an image or images to be printed from the user terminal to an order reception server installed in an order reception center via a network such as the Internet. The order reception server transfers the image data and the order information to a print server installed in a laboratory or in a mini-laboratory of a DPE store. The print server carries out printing of the image data based on the order information in order to generate a print or prints (hereinafter referred to as the prints) such as additional prints, picture postcards, photo albums or the like.
The prints generated in the above manner are delivered to an agency specified by the user at the time of ordering the prints. The user visits the agency and receives the prints after paying a charge therefor. A desired store generally close to the place of residence or employment of the user is designated as the agency. The agency maybe the DPE store that has generated the prints.
The “order information” refers to information such as a processing number for specifying the content of a service (such as additional print generation or picture postcard generation), an image number for specifying a photograph (a file number of image data representing the photograph), a print size and a quantity of prints, quality of printing paper (such as glossy or non-glossy), thickness of the printing paper, the content of photographic processing, and trimming specification, for example. The order information may further include information regarding a name, an address, a zip code and a phone number of the user.
In the network photograph service system described above, when the user places the print order for ordinary prints while using the viewer software for example, the user selects images to be printed one by one and inputs the content of the print order such as a size and a quantity for each of the images. The user then accesses the order reception server and transfers the order information representing the content of the print order and the image data to be printed. Therefore, the user needs to repeat the same procedure described above (such as image selection, order-content input, and data transfer) for each of the images to be printed, which is troublesome for the user.